Over time the Millennium E building became bedecked with green lights (the brand color of Xbox) and other decorations to physically differentiate it from the main campus. It was furnished like a game development studio, with games to play, televisions to watch and comfortable places to sit, and as the team worked through 2000 and 2001, its status within Microsoft grew legendary.

“Xbox was cool,” says Pobst. “And to have a part of Microsoft that was cool had not really happened before.”